SWTOR going f2p

The news is all over the internet. And rumors were spreading for a while now. Yesterday Bioware confirmed it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play this fall.

For many this is like the apocalypse for this game. For others it's the only way around it. I'm with the second group. I think people nowadays don't want to spend much playing the game, mostly because they don't want to be forced to play it all the time since they payed a month for it. Being f2p, allows a player to play whenever he sees fit without the pressure of knowing that he payed for that time. That's one way to see things. Also, either we like or not, f2p is here to stay, and most games are going this formula except, in my opinion World of Warcraft. Will it be a good option for SWTOR, though?

Looking at the SWTOR Free-to-play Matrix , i feel that this model will be somewhat like the model used on Age of Conan or even Everquest 2, where players have access to many features of the game, but the main bulk, like raiding, instancing or some pvp is blocked some way. In my opinion this is like an enlarge trial version, that the player can go from level one to the cap, but if he really wants to enjoy the game, he will have to subscribe it. But time will tell.

Also veteran SWTOR players will receive some benefits from previous subscriptions, which you can see here.

In any case, for me, this means i can enjoy a bit more of the game without worrying too much about paying a subscription each month. Allow me much more freedom of play, to play whenever i want and how i see fit.